Ember tervez...

154 km-re a cel allomastol ugy terveztuk, hogy ket nap alatt teljesitjuk a tavot.
Hajnali 5-kor mar uton voltunk, es mivel felhos volt az eg egesz nap,gyorsan haladtunk, ugy dontottunk, h. nem allunk meg 70 km-re Siem Reap-tol. Haladtunk tovabb a kovetkezo, majd a kovetkezo faluig, igy sikerult 120 km-t bicajoznunk azon a napon. Delutan 16 ora korul, mar  "csak" 30 km-re voltunk a celtol, de 1 metert sem tudtunk volna tobbet tekerni mar. Mivel a kis varosban sehol nem talaltunk szallas lehetoseget, ugy dontottunk, hogy buszra szallunk es ugy fejezzuk be a turat. Nick nagyon nem szerette az otletet, o mindenkepp "bele szeretett volna biciklizni" Siem Reap-be.  A buszra szallas otlete nem valosult meg, senki nem akart minket elvinni.A helyiek minden egyes buszt leintettek nekunk, probaltak segiteni, de nem ment. Akkor elokapott a zsebebol az egyik egy telefont, es felkialltott: TUK-TUK. Imadtam az otletet, es mukodott :)

Igy sikerult 1 nappal elobb megerkeznunk, a randevu napjan mi mar a medenceben csucsulve vartunk Shareen-re es Dave-re. Az utolso 30 km tekeressel  tegnap vegre sikerult elbicajoznunk es megneznunk Angkor Wat-ot, remelem tetszeni fognak a kepek.

Koszonom nektek az emaileket, a hozzaszolasokat, hogy kovettetek az utunkat, nem hiszitek, de sokszor adott erot a biztatasotok...Nick azota is emlegeti, h. hanyszor akartam eladni a bicikliket es robogora szallni...de mindezekkel egyutt eletem legsuperebb nyaralasa, vagy inkabb ahogy angolul hivom tour helyett " tourture", torturaja volt. Elso bringaturasokkent persze mar latjuk, mennyit es hol hibaztunk a szervezesben....az elso es legfontosabb, Azsiaba biciklizni nyaron...biztosan
tobbet nem fogunk :)

Day 16 - Siem Reap the final chapter

Yesterday was  spent by the pool, soaking our aching limbs, and to complete the tour Dave and Shereen arrived late afternoon by taxi !

Last night we enjoyed our first real beer in over two weeks, to celebrate Dave's birthday.

Today, it was a bit of a 'Busmans' holiday, as we cycled 30km around Anchor Wat, Bayon,

Anchor Thom and Ta Prohm the legendary Tomb Raider temple which was our favourite.

Dave and Shereen had a taste of what it was like cycling out here, and they both are now struggling to sit down, and Dave looked liked he needed mouth to mouth, but no volunteers.

So today was officially the end of the tour, we have a further few days travelling around Cambodia by car, before flying home.

The tour has been real experience, seen some amazing things, tasted some wonderful and sometimes strange foods, had some real challenges on the bikes, especially from Hoi An to Po Y on the Laos border, seen sheer poverty which is very humbling, been welcomed and cheered throughout the whole adventure, by very friendly people.

As a Project Manager, i couldn't finish without some 'lessons learnt'....realistically , 50-80km is the most you can comfortably achieve in a day. With 20kg weight on each bike 20-25  km/hr is a good pace, but after a few hours cycling this can drop to 15km / hr. Thru Vietnam, where you have many 10% hills, your distance can reduce to 5km / hr.  Also the only time you can comfortably maintain any pace, is from 5am first light til 10am, as soon as the sun is high in the sky it becomes tough, very tough!

Lastly, thanks to everybody who followed us over the last 2.5 weeks on the Blog, the comments and sheer numbers of hits from over 20 different countries were the motivation we often needed to keep us going. So til the next one ....... we both say goodbye.

party time

Day 15 - Kampong Thom - Siem Reap

Hitting  the tarmac at 5am gave us a flying start, and before you could say 'is that really two dead cows on that motorbike trailer' we had done 26km, and time for the first morning coffee.

nearly done

Another 26km done and we had arrived at our planned destination  Stoung, but we found a very dusty  red sandstone town,  which wasn't the most attractive, so we decided to push on to the next town, and then the next and next!  Before long we had clocked up 120km (our most in one day). We arrived in Damdek, expecting to be spoilt with choice of guest houses, and were surprised and also very stuck when we found out it was a hotel free zone.

I think most of the town had come out to offer us advice on what to do next, but what we did understand that the nearest hotel was in Siem Reap, which was another 30km away, and with our legs shot after 120km, we had no choice but to get a bus. But non were willing to take us, so in a very undignified and quiet frankly very disappointing, as we wanted to cycle into Siem Reap..... we got a tuk tuk, with our bikes strapped to the tuk tuk. The speed we did the next 30km was about the same we would have cycled, but we got there just before the skies opened, so that was pleasing.

yep its a tuk tuk

So after 1300km, 3 countries, and two weeks in the saddle,  we have arrived at our destination, completely wasted, but one day early.

this little piggy went to market

Tomorrow Dave and Shereen arrive, and we will get down to some well earned R&R for the next week, so tomorrow will probably be the last blog.

these certainly didnt go home

Day 14- Kampong Cham City - Kampong Thom

As always, you learn more from folks in bars than the Internet can ever provide. The only blog i could find about road conditions between KCC and KT were that the roads were good in 2008, well following discussions with locals they tell me the opposite, and that they are impassable on bikes.

So again our planning had been shot to bits, with the local mini bus as our only plan B, which under normal conditions seats 10, but this is Asia! so we managed to fit in 20 people plus a market full of fruit boxes  Oh yeh, plus two bikes tied to the back. The good thing, the journey was short, and we soon arrived in the market at Kampong Thom. From there we had 1km to our latest good Internet find, Sambor Village resort, and for $35 / night, it was good value, we had our own chalet style room, with rustic features and the biggest plus .... it had a pool.

no fun

are you serious

So a lazy afternoon.  However you may be thinking that its a bit of a 'cop out' getting the bus, but when you are 194cm tall, and not much flesh around the buttocks plus dodgy knees, taking the bus with 20 others, sitting on half a seat, over incredibly bumpy roads, i would cycle any day, the bus is a last option here.

P.s only 150km to Siem Reap!